


In This Together

by irrelevant



Category: DCU, DCU - Comicverse
Genre: F/M, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-22
Updated: 2010-05-22
Packaged: 2017-10-09 15:45:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/89013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irrelevant/pseuds/irrelevant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's probably a bad idea, but she's good with those.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In This Together

Robin says, "Guards are switching out. We should do this now."

Steph lowers her batnoculars (they totally are shaped like a bat) and frowns at him. "We're supposed to wait for backup. Red said—"

"Since when do you do what Red Robin says?" He crosses his arms, and she can almost see his scowl through the lowered white-outs.

She crosses her arms right back at him; she learned from the best, baby, and Oracle's crossing of the arms is a killer. "I don't," she says, "but you know, twenty of them and two of us. We could probably take them, but back-up is a _good_ thing when you can—hey, are you looking at my chest?"

"No," Robin says, and turns his head enough that she can see the little bit of red running up his cheekbones.

"Oh, you so were." She grins, because she knows from teenage boy Robins, and Damian is a little snot, but he's still a teenage boy Robin.

"Can we get back to the subject?" he snaps.

"Which is…?"

"You'll do what Batman or Oracle or even Red Robin tells you to do before you'll listen to your partner."

And she opens her mouth because that's just bullshit, and she—

Should be saying something about Batman or Tim or both of them, but—

He's—

Her partner. Robin is her partner, and that's been true at various times in her life, but never more than it is now.

Tim was her crush, her teacher, best friend, brother, not quite lover. He broke her heart and she ripped him a new one, and she thinks now that that's the only way it could have gone for them.

Damian… she had no expectations there. No preconceived ideas except for the one where he was a stuck-up jerk, because he really, really was. Still is, in a lot of ways.

But it's been five years since Bruce climbed out of the grave they collectively dug for him in their heads, and although Damian is Robin, Tim is still Bruce's partner. Not in the everyday sense of the word, but when Batman needs backup, it's Red Robin who gets the call.

Nightwing went back to New York and left a sucking hole in Damian's worldview; Steph wants to punch herself in the mouth for just now getting that Batgirl is Robin's stopgap. Or, she thinks, watching him watch her, maybe not. Because stopgaps are temporary and this—

Five years.

"Okay," she says, crouching down next to him. "Hit me."

He jerks his chin at the 'nocs. "Three o'clock from the back warehouse. You tell me."

She raises an eyebrow (Bruce _and_ Babs) but she also raises the batnoculars and looks. "Son of a _bitch_. They weren't supposed to move until tomorrow night."

"No."

She gives Robin mental points for neutral instead of smug, and activates her comm. "Red, what's your ETA?"

"Thirty minutes."

"Damn it." She switches to Oracle's frequency. "O, please tell me Gold's around?"

"She's with Nightwing. Do you want me to contact B?"

She can feel Robin staring at her from under his hood. When she says, "No, we've got this, Batgirl out," he doesn't move, but she's pretty sure his mouth looks less sneery than normal. She collapses the batnoculars and slides them back into their pouch, glancing down at the installation as she does. "You think we can handle this?"

"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't," he says, and there's her nasty, irritable little Robin-jerk-brother-whatever. Damian.

Steph laughs as quietly as she can, which is actually pretty quiet because, you know, _Batgirl_. "It's your call," she says. "Whatever, I'm up for it. Partner." She sticks her hand out, offering and meaning it.

The slight twitch of his hood would be anyone else's jerk of surprise. It falls slightly back from his face and she's surprised to see that sometime within the last few minutes, he flipped his lenses.

He looks from her face to her hand. Back up to her face, and she's starting to get nervous, but how about that, he's actually going to—wait a minute—

His gauntlet is locked around hers. Fingers threaded together, and he's pulling her forward and—and holy _fuck_-

Her eyes are open and so are his. Their mouths are barely touching, she can feel his breath, taste peppermint in the brush of his (soft, boy) lips, and they're just sitting here staring at each other over the bridge of their mouths. Then she blinks and Damian abruptly pulls back and lets go of her, and she lands on her ass because yeah, did _not_ see that one coming at _all_.

Damian is on his feet, and it's his hand out this time. Still speechless, she grabs his forearm and he hauls her up, and she notices, not for the first but definitely for the _important_ time, that's he's almost as tall as she is.

He says, shortly, "Partners. Roof?"

"Sounds good to me."

Batgirl's grapple is in her hand. She sees Robin shoot his line, licks her lips and tastes him: fifteen and peppermint sweet. Takes a moment to watch him fly before she shoots her own line and follows her partner. She's grinning wide enough to split her lip the way she already knows she's going to split it on Robin's some day soon, which is possibly the dumbest idea she's ever had, and Jesus, she's had some dumb ideas.

These bastards aren't going to know what hit them.


End file.
